O365 Personal vs Home - What's the Difference Between the Two Plans

In this post, we are comparing the O365 Personal vs Home edition of Office 365 subscription-based offerings.

Along with the other Office 365 subscription plans already available, Microsoft recently announced a new program – Office 365 Personal. The plan was introduced in March 2019 and differed slightly from the existing Home plan. What exactly are the differences between Office 365 Home and Office 365 Personal? We will attempt understanding them in a little more exceptional detail.

Office 365 – What it is?

Most of us are aware of it. However, if you are someone who is not aware of what exactly is Office 365, it is a productivity suite that lets you use multiple Microsoft products and services. It is a subscription-based service, and the product was launched over a couple of years ago.

The service is available under multiple plans and offers you access to the best services you may have been looking for from the cloud-based services. Office 365 is being provided through various plans, and you can opt for multiple programs and services based on your personal preferences.

Office 365 Home – An Overview

Office 365 Home provides you access to Word, Excel. PowerPoint and many more options in productivity filled package. Your apps are always updated, and you can move ahead with an enhanced productivity level wherever you go.

You can either go with an annual or monthly subscription option. The plan is available for six members. The plan can be used on multiple devices simultaneously. The Office 365 plan provides you access to 1 TB of storage per user. You have access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Onedrive.

Some of the essential features offered by Office 365 Home would include

Share the content with your entire family – a maximum of six members
Tech support through chat or phone.
Premium versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Published on PC alone.
You can use it on multiple devices that include PCs, tablets, Macs, and phones.
Your subscription will be auto-renewed with an option to cancel it at any time.

The monthly charges for the service would be $ 9.99 per month. You will also have access to 20 GB of OneDrive storage as part of the subscription. It also provides you access to sixty Skype minutes per month and can make calls to more than 60 countries globally.

The following video should provide you useful info into what can you expect from the Office 365 Home.

Office 365 Personal – What is it?

This is a new plan launched by Microsoft is designed for those users who are not power users. As you may have already guessed it right, the plan is available for purely personal usage. Of course, you can use all the products and services as on the Office 365 Home Plan, but the plan is open for only one person.

The service can be availed on multiple devices and comes with 1 TB of storage. You can use it on various PCs, Mac devices, tablets, and phones.

You can opt for expert tech support through phone or chat. The Office 365 plan is a newer option and is entirely similar to the Office 365 Home with the only exception being it is available only for one user. The package would be slightly cheaper at $ 6.99.

As with Office 365 Home, here is a video showcasing the salient features of Office 365 Personal

The Comparison Chart for Office 365 Home and Office 365 Personal

Having gone through the specific information shared hereabove concerning each of the Office 365 plans we are interested in, we thought it would be practical enough to check them out in a comparison chart through a side by side comparison.

Description	Office 365 Home	Office 365 Personal
Number of users	Six members per subscription	Only one user per subscription
Office apps included	Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access	Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access
Other services	OneDrive	OneDrive
Premium Version Updates for Office apps	Yes, available	Yes, available
Apps available for installation	Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, and Access. Publisher and Access are available only on PC	Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, and Access. Publisher and Access are available only on PC
OneNote availability	Yes	Yes
Multiple device compatibility	Yes, available	Yes, available
Storage	1 TB storage per person for six users	1 TB storage only for one user
Microsoft Support	Yes, through chat and phone at no extra cost	Yes, through chat and phone at no additional cost
Subscription charges	$ 9.99 per month or $ 99.99 per year	$ 6.99 per month or $ 69.99 per year
Skype availability	60 minutes per month to more than 60 countries	60 minutes per month to more than 60 countries

Practically speaking, there is no difference between the Home and Personal plans of Office 365 except for the limitation on the number of users. The Home Plan comes with support for six members while the Personal Plan is available only for one user.

It should be noted that there is no limit to on how many devices you would be able to install your Office apps and services, but the number of users would be limited.

Which is a better Option among the Two?

That should be something dependent upon your personal preferences. However, you would definitely want to go with Office 365 Home than Personal. Our reasoning is quite apparent.

Of course, Office 365 Personal comes at a lower pricing plan. This may be a little tempting to opt for this new Office 365 offering from Microsoft. We would opt for the Home plan for the additional benefits that it offers you.

However, Microsoft has recently made it possible to install office apps on multiple devices. This has practically made both Office 365 Home and Office 365 Personal almost similar except for the number of users that you can enroll.

Ideally speaking, if you have a family with more members using the computers, it may be a good idea to opt for the Home plan so that you will save money instead of spending for each of the accounts. On the other hand, if you are someone alone using the services, it would be a good idea to go with the Personal plan. You can install your apps on multiple devices in either case.

How to Migrate from Office 365 Personal to Home?

What if you are on Office 365 Personal and are looking to move over to Office 365 Home? Well, that should not be a difficult task as such.

The steps involved here should be easy and straightforward to go with. You just need to visit the official Office 365 site and change your plan. Please note that it would be advisable to opt for the change of plan well before the expiry of your existing plan. This will help continue with the new plan right from day one.

In Conclusion

That was all we had concerning the differences between Office 365 Personal and Office 365 Home. As you may have already observed through the above discussion, the two plans come with almost identical features except for a few subtle differences.

Your choice of the options should ideally be dependent upon the exact number of users and the usage pattern you may have. Check out the salient features and choose the plan that exactly meets your needs.

More on Office 365:

How Much Does Office 365 Business Premium Cost in India?
Office 2019 System Requirements For Windows 10
Office 365 E1 vs E3 Enterprise Plans Comparison
Office 365 Business Premium Features Price and Trial Accounts
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